Our X goes, but not as quickly, but i blame it on the bald Dunlop SportMaxx tires.

 

I have a 92 jeep cherokee 4x4, which isnt very comparable, but my 05x handling in snow is much better not to mention the braking system which is obviously superior. Even with hard acceleration through snow covered turns the G will only flinch a bit in the rear. I get a little more wheel spin in the G, but this is expected with more power and less weight. A coworker has a 03 wrx we take out and that thing slides through every corner, and does not feel half as sure footed as the G, though im not sure of his tire/suspension setup.

I love cruising around in the snow in my G! General Exclaim UHP tires, btw.

 

I have no confidence in the IS. It drives fine for the average person driving on light snow, but if it's a full blizzard outside, i'd rather be in my G35.

The funny parts is with WORN all-seasons, i still can't get the G35 "stuck" but with fairly new all-seaons on the IS, i have had plenty of situations where i've had to rock the car out of a spot. The worst is when i try to park and the edge of the road has snow, so i'mforced to put two tires in it. I've actually gotten the car stuck to the point where both pass side tires spin in place and NOTHING happens...even with trac control still on!

The G35 will use VDC and will still keep plowing. I just can't get it stuck period...even in snow deep enough that the front bumper pushes it. I don't even need SNOW mode in the G35.

The lease is up in feb....gonna go Audi A4 vert I think

 

^Good choice.

 

I had a Mazda CX-7 before the G, with AWD and Nokian WR's for the winter (still have those tires because I can't sell them!). It was great in the snow, but the driving feel was quite a bit different. It was FWD until it felt slippage, then transitioned to AWD. You could feel it change modes, and then you'd start moving. Overall, they both drive about the same, both had excellent brakes, the CX had more ground clearance, but the G is much more fun because you could never get the Mazda's rear end to break loose. Plus the Mazda was one heavy ****, almost 4000 pounds.

 

This is definitely not in the same category as the G but we have a beater 99 explorer with auto 4WD and its system is horses***. In AUTO mode the system lags so badly that by the time its actually gotten the 4WD turned on your in the crash barriers. The only time its half decent is when you actually switch it into one of the 4WD modes. (High or Low) Then its alright.

 

Wow, you live in Kentucky and drive an X and put snows on? That's dedication...didn't think you guys get that much snow down there, do you? Just curious.

 

Also, not in the same category, but my Mother and Father both used to own a Dodge Ram 1500 and a Dodge Durango. Both were BEASTS in the snow. These were before the Auto 4WD/AWD days. When it snowed, you moved a lever to 4WD in the ram, or hit a selector to 4WD in the durango and that was it...trucks were the ballz. I remember plowing that Ram 1500 through snow piles 2 feet tall without a problem at all. When I was a teenager in the 90's and it was snowing heavy, those are what I drove. Even though they were cheap dodges, mechanically they were tanks.

Now my Mom has a C-class benz and my father just traded in for a Subaru Outback. Curious to see how the subie is in the snow compared to my G and IS.

 

True, we typically don't get any significant accumulation. However a few points led me to go this route:
1)Wifey gave me the OK to get a new pair of shoes for the X this spring -- there are 19s in my future.
2)Due to #1, I was able to allocate the OEM 17s to focused use -- and chose snows under the assumption I'd use them maybe 2 mos of the year.
3)The snows I chose are the Performance winter option, not the full bore Snow/Ice (blizzak WS60) version so they are more tuned to what we do see in KY -- periods of snow, slush and ice in moderation.
4)We just happened to get 4 - 6 inches this week so the timing couldn't have been more perfect to go explore the capabilities of the X.

I'm looking forward to 4 or 5 years easily of being able to swap in the garage and go in inclement weather. As good as these Dunlops are, I imagine Blizzak or Michellin XIce must be unbelievable.

 

Im driving a 96 Subaru Outback in the winter, and it is an absolute tank in the snow. I cant imagine a newer one

 

XD the epic subaru wagon! That thing is a tank in the snow even when its going up against the exploder!

 

I'm in Massachusetts, and I can say that my G35x is the gest thing I've had in the snow. Far better than my wife's Suburu Legacy AWD. My son drives a 2004 G35x and we put Blizzak's on it, and it's unreal in the snow.

 

I took my wife to work yesterday because her Explorer (2WD) is absolutely worthless in the snow. She works at a research center on top of a hill so I was a little worried my car wouldn't make it up. The hill was a solid sheet of ice with two switchbacks. Put it in snow mode and cruised up with no problem at all. I couldn't believe how well it performed even with some cheap, generic all-season tires.

 

Nice! That makes complete sense then...and a very nice wife that you have there...reminds me of mine..she let's me do things like that too (that's what I did....and I have 19's for the summer too).

BTW - I too am running Dunlop Winter Sport M3's (17's on my OEM rims).

 

A set of snow tires is going to make a much bigger difference in winter traction than any kind of 4wd/awd system. Any comparison that doesn't have the same class of tires (all season vs snow) on both cars isn't going to be especially useful.

I had a RWD car that used to get stuck on slightly icy level surfaces. A set of snow tires made it nearly as confident in the slippery stuff as my Audi was.

I've owned both an Audi A4 Quattro and a Subaru Legacy. Those use two different types of AWD systems, both of which are different from the one used in the X. The X has a much more significant tendency to oversteer than either of those cars, but other than that there's no practical difference between any of them. They'll all get you where you're going.

(Except for the Audi, which is going to break down on the way there. Twice. And it'll be five grand to fix it each time, unless you don't already have a garage full of VAG tools that you had to custom order from Germany in which case it will cost more hate you hate you hate you Audi.)

BTW, the snow button doesn't give you more traction, downforce, flan, or muffler bearings. It just keeps you from autodarwinating in the event that the connection between your brain and your foot is unreliable. Use it, but don't think that it has anything to do with you getting out of a ditch or up a hill.